With Elfin, we want to encourage you to do smart things with your money, like investing. After all, investing can be smart, it’s fun and also much more accessible than you might have thought: even with small amounts, you can already work on your financial future. But where do you start, and how do you build an investment portfolio? That’s why it’s nice to occasionally be inspired by other women who have also started investing. What amounts did they start with and what does their investment portfolio look like? Why do they invest in certain products and what is their goal? Read, get inspired and start investing yourself. This time an interview with Dionne Knooren.
Tell: who are you?
My name is Dionne, 28 and I work as a freelance digital marketer with a strong focus on Pinterest Marketing and I own the platform Entrepreneurship Like a Boss. I am a real work-a-holic and my work is really my passion. Yet I found last year – when I lived and worked as a digital nomad in Barcelona for 3.5 months – that life is not all about work. Quality of life combined with being surrounded by fine people with whom you make wonderful memories is just as important.
Then I realized that – even though I am already doing quite a lot with passive income and making a nice amount of money from that – I want to get even more out of it. I also want to get rid of the hourly-billing principle. Or there at least: to a much lesser extent.
My biggest dream of all is to be more financially free and live and work from abroad for longer periods of time. After getting a taste of the digtal nomad life for 3.5 months last year, it tastes like more and I would like to experience what it is like to stay somewhere indefinitely.
Cool! And why did you start investing?
The reason I started investing is because I had a certain amount of money in my savings account that – due to inflation – was only becoming worth less. And I thought that was a dead waste of my hard-earned pennies. So I started looking for alternatives. That’s the reason I started investing in 2017. First very small and eventually more and more.
Has your mindset about money changed since you started investing?
No, I don’t think my mindset about money has changed since I started investing. From the time I went to college and realized how expensive life actually is, I started looking more and more at how to cut back on nonsense things. You work hard for your money, so then you don’t want to spend it on trivial things.
My mindset about investing did change since the moment I started it myself. I thought investing was only for the rich people, especially only old, rich and gray men in Porsche. But of course it is not. 😉 You can invest as little as €50, so almost anyone can start investing. It is not as tough, complicated or dusty as many people think.
What do you think is important when it comes to investing?
I think it is important to know the rules and conditions of the brokers. For example, Degiro was recently in the news badly, and that makes me want to spread my investments more through several brokers rather than one party.
In addition, I think the range of trackers or funds is very important. That’s a reason for me not to invest through Bux Zero, because they don’t have it. In addition, I think it’s important to have deposit insurance with the broker. And of course: the cost. So how much are the fees you have to pay through the different brokers.
I also look at the types of businesses: what do I want to invest in and what don’t I want to invest in. I think it’s important that the company either still has some growth potential (like Pinterest) or that they pay a lot of dividends.
What does your investment portfolio currently look like?
I use the 90/10 rule. This means that 10% are individual stocks and 90% are trackers or funds. For example, I invest in a number of individual stocks in the tech sector. Think Sonos, Facebook, ASML and Pinterest. In terms of trackers, I am mostly on VWRL, Real Estate trackers and various Ishares.
Want to learn more about investing in trackers? Then read this article: all about investing in ETFs.
Why did you choose these products?
I specifically chose some tech companies because I believe in them. I feel there is a certain growth potential in that. And Pinterest, for example, has shown that. But the amount of dividends paid in trackers or funds is also an important argument for me to choose them.
What is your dream portfolio?
Some shares of Tesla… 😉 These have grown SO well in recent years, but I find them too expensive to buy them now. Just like Netflix. I would like to invest a little more in some tech companies and also a very diversified range of trackers and funds through different brokers: Degiro, ING and Brand New Day.
In time, I also want to find out about the possibilities of crowdfunding projects and/or peer-2-peer landing. Or buying an investment property, which is also a dream.
How much money do you currently have invested?
I currently have over €20K sitting in investments, with €250 added automatically every month. During periods when things are better financially, I transfer more money to my investment account.
How good! What is your ultimate investment goal?
Become more financially free and eventually become completely financially free. By turning on the money machine as early as possible, I hope that eventually I will have built up such a large portfolio that I will be financially free and only have to do the work I really enjoy, no longer because I have to.
What does your life look like when you have met your investment goal?
More freedom, working less and enjoying and being abroad even more. I also think that would make it easier for me to book a more expensive hotel room. I find that sometimes I still suffer a bit from my student budget mentality, even though I graduated six years ago and have been working full-time ever since. So nowhere to go.
What advice would you give women who also want to start investing?
Start today! Money needs time to become more valuable. The sooner you start, the better. Invest only with money you can spare, though, because investing is for the long term. I myself started investing when I was 25, but looking back I would have preferred to start even earlier.
